"A column that ran on page 1D of Wednesday's sports section might have included incorrect information from two men claiming to be Russian. There's just no sure way of knowing."

There's just no way to know! Other than checking out the fake characters' Facebook pages and YouTube videos, that is. Or maybe calling them on the phone. Or reading our blog post. Other than that, though, it's impossible.
Riptide has called Herald editor Anders Gyllenhaal to get his take on the case of the fake Russkies. We'll update if we hear back.

Herald sports editor Jorge Rojas says in an email that he didn't realize that we'd already published "Pavel and Yuri's" real names (Bradley Springer and Jonathan Taylor) and jokes that "we'll send some hitmen after them."